Rascal Flatts photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.

April marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, and Rascal Flatts is one of several country acts that will remember that moment in American history by appearing in a mini-series.

“To Appomattox” is named after the site where the South eventually surrendered, and the project will employ the guys in a couple of ways. They’ve been enlisted to produce the soundtrack, according to a website devoted to the production. And they’ll also have roles as soldiers. That’s a little bit different than their last attempt at acting, when they appeared as themselves on the CBS drama “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

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Darius Rucker photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

When Darius Rucker put together his second country album, he decided to title it Charleston, SC 1966 as a method of paying tribute to one of his biggest influences in country music: Radney Foster.

Radney came to prominence in the late 1980s as one-half of a duo, Foster & Lloyd, and in recent years, he’s earned success as a songwriter of Sara Evans’ “A Real Fine Place To Start” and Keith Urban’s “Raining On Sunday” and “I’m In.” But Radney’s also a fine solo performer, and his first album after leaving Foster & Lloyd was named after the city and year of his birth, Del Rio, Texas 1959.

Darius’ Charleston, SC 1966 very closely resembles that template, a sort of monument to Radney’s inspiration, which led Darius to discover a whole world of country sounds.

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Tim McGraw photo courtesy of timmcgraw.com.

There’ve been a series of Tim McGraw greatest-hits packages released already, but if you’re looking to pick up a copy of his current single, you might want to invest in his new, slightly different best-of compilation.

His Number One Hits is a two-CD album set for release on Nov. 30. It will include 22 songs that hit the top of the Billboard country chart during Tim’s career in addition to two bonus cuts: new release “Felt Good On My Lips” and a dance remix of Tim’s very first hit, “Indian Outlaw.”

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Keith Urban photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

The building that houses country music’s family treasures just got a big infusion of cash.

Keith Urban and Vince Gill played hosts Tuesday night at All For The Hall, a multi-artist concert at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Country Music Hall of Fame. The arena and the hall share an intersection in Music City, and the artists who paraded across the Bridgestone stage shared a love for the district’s best-known genre.

Billy Currington threw judicious moments of vocal ferocity into his version of Kenny Rogers’ “Sweet Music Man,” Martina McBride emulated Reba McEntire well with a few well-placed trills at the close of “Is There Life Out There,” and Dolly Parton resurrected George Jones’ funereal “He Stopped Loving Her Today.”

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Jamey Johnson photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

Jamey Johnson is headed to the home of the Milwaukee Brewers Saturday, though he won’t be singing the national anthem or “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” during the final weekend of baseball’s regular season.

Instead, he’s been announced at the last minute as an addition to the lineup for Willie Nelson’s Farm Aid 25: Growing Home For America at Miller Park. Board members John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Neil Young were already set for the concert, of course. And so were Norah Jones, Jeff Tweedy, Jason Mraz and the Randy Rogers Band, among others.

And the event has an interesting connection to the top of the country album charts. Jamey’s new double-disc CD, The Guitar Song, came out Sept. 14 and went to No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart. Kenny Chesney’s new project, Hemingway’s Whiskey, came out on Tuesday, and it’s already being forecast as the top-selling album in any genre for the week. Since Kenny’s scheduled to be at Miller Park, too, it means artists with No. 1 country albums two of the last three weeks will both appear on the same stage the same day.

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Rosanne Cash photo courtesy of myspace.com/rosannecash.

Ronald Reagan, the DeLorean and parachute pants.

The 1980s were kind of strange — and we’re still paying for the greed-is-good mentality that the ‘80s movie Wall Street embraced.

Nevertheless, there were numerous artists worth their salt in that decade who still matter: Reba McEntire, Dwight Yoakam and George Strait had their first hits, for example. And several acts — including Rosanne Cash, Paul Overstreet and the Desert Rose Band — are still making their presence felt.

Here’s a look at some of the artists who reached their commercial peak during the ‘80s who are making a creative difference in slightly different ways:

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Willie Nelson photo by David McClister, courtesy of Lost Highway.

In September 1985, Willie Nelson established a charity he hoped would be short-lived. Instead, the work goes on, and on Oct. 2, he’ll present Farm Aid 25: Growing Hope For America.

Willie wore a Milwaukee Brewers jersey for the online announcement on Monday in recognition of the venue, Miller Park. The concert marks the first time that Farm Aid will be held at a major-league baseball stadium. John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews — all of whom serve as board members for the organization — are on tap for the concert. Other acts will be named at a later date.

Willie lamented that Farm Aid is still necessary, noting that the event has “called attention to the problem, but we have not solved the problem.”

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Merle Haggard has been called the Poet of the Common Man, and his ability to capture the hopes and fears of real people with his songwriting — not to mention his expressiveness as a singer — helped him lock up a spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Now he’s got a place in another hall of honor: the California Hall of Fame, housed at the California Museum, just one block from the State Capitol in Sacramento. Merle’s induction was announced Wednesday by the state’s First Lady, Maria Shriver, among a class of 14 new members. The class includes Barbra Streisand, Betty White, former Governor Pat Brown, jeans maker Levi Strauss and director James Cameron.

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Bill Monroe photo courtesy of www.myspace.com/williamsmithmonroe.

Bill Monroe, widely regarded as the father of bluegrass, may soon get the same sort of movie treatment that’s been given to Johnny Cash and Ray Charles.

Actor Peter Sarsgaard, known for his work in “Jarhead” and the new “Knight And Day,” is in the early stages of development in a film about the late mandolin player, according to The Wrap. Peter is apparently a big fan of Bill, who played a central role in creating and shaping the acoustic genre named after his band, the Blue Grass Boys.

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George Strait photo by Danny Clinch, courtesy of UMG Nashville.

Memorabilia belonging to country music’s best — from Country Music Hall of Fame member George Strait to multi-platinum act Taylor Swift — is on display in a new exhibit at the Hall of Fame and Museum, where the genre’s vault neatly escaped the ravages of Nashville’s recent flooding.

The Hall’s caretakers held an invitation-only preview Thursday for its updated exhibit, Sing Me Back Home: A Journey Though Country Music, which features a bevy of memorabilia from acts that had their commercial peaks in the last three decades. Behind the glass are such pieces as the boots Reba McEntire wore her first night on the Grand Ole Opry, the Martin D-28 guitar Garth Brooks played on his recording of “The Dance” and Bill Anderson’s hand-written lyrics to “Whiskey Lullaby.”

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